


Running Silent

by AnaliseGrey



Series: It's Just a Challenge [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I sort of forgot you?, Migraine, Sickfic, Team as Family, fluff (of a sort), next time I promise, sorry Keith and Hunk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-21 21:49:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13152726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnaliseGrey/pseuds/AnaliseGrey
Summary: The castle was never really what one could call ‘quiet’. Even when they were in the midst of a set sleep cycle, there was still the low mechanical hum of the engines and various machinery to keep the life-support systems running.Now, though, things were definitely not quiet.





	Running Silent

The castle was never really what one could call ‘quiet’. Even when they were in the midst of a set sleep cycle, there was still the low mechanical hum of the engines and various machinery to keep the life-support systems running. 

Now, though, things were definitely not quiet. 

Shiro had been feeling a bit off all day, though he couldn’t put a finger on any one thing that was wrong. He was tired, but then all of them were tired. Fighting an intergalactic war for the freedom of the universe wasn’t conducive to being well-rested. Feeling ‘weird’ wasn’t enough to keep him from doing things that needed doing; he’d worked through (and _been_ through) much worse. The sound of his teammates’ voices through the comms shouldn’t be bothering him so much; they weren’t being any louder than normal, but he could have done without some of the extra chatter.

The paladins trained most of the morning, Shiro so focused on giving direction and correcting tactics that the weird feeling faded to the background. Around lunch time, they took a break, and the feeling flared right back up again; colors overly saturated and everything looking...odd. Not wrong, but just off somehow. Swiping at his face and neck with a towel, Shiro squinched his eyes shut, shaking his head, and reopened his eyes. Things looked almost normal again, though the colors and lights still seemed brighter than they should. 

At lunch things weren’t much better, the bright blue-green of the food goo Hunk was serving out made his stomach churn, and the raised bickering voices of his fellow paladins grated on him, like nails on a chalkboard. All at once, it was just too much and he had to get out. Shiro shoved back from the table, standing so quickly he knocked his chair over, wincing at the noise, and moved to get away. He wasn’t even sure where he was going, other than he just needed somewhere quiet. Gritting his teeth, he aimed for the door when his vision swam again, bright wavy lines flickering at the edges of his vision, his balance deserting him. He could hear the voices raised in concern behind him as his steps faltered, dropping him down to one knee as the room seemed to roll around him. Squeezing his eyes shut, Shiro covered them with his metal hand, trying to regain his balance, breath starting to speed up as he struggled for control.

A hand tentatively settled on his shoulder, and Shiro flinched, the hand pulling back immediately.

“Shiro, what’s wrong?” Allura’s voice came from right next to him, and through the fog in his brain, Shiro realized it was likely her hand that had been on his shoulder.

“I...I don’t know.” Shiro ground out from between clenched teeth. His stomach rolled again and he went down to his hands and knees. He shivered, and the lure of just laying down and grabbing on the floor was almost overwhelming. The room felt like it was spinning around him and if he didn’t hang on hard enough, he’d fly off. It was very disconcerting.

“Alrighty, c’mon fearless leader, off to medbay we go.” 

Shiro could feel Lance come up along his side and tuck up under his arm, helping Shiro struggle up to his feet. Cracking his eyes open, Shiro could see Allura come up on his other side, wrapping an arm around his waist to help keep him steady as they made their way out of the dining area, and headed towards the medbay. 

The other paladins followed along behind, the weight of their silence heavy after the light-hearted ribbing there’d been earlier. Shiro gritted his teeth against his rolling stomach, and decided keeping his eyes shut was the better part of valor, trusting Allura and Lance to keep him steady.

They finally arrived at the medical suite, and Lance and Allura helped settle him gently into a chair next to one of the scanners. He could hear the others murmuring quietly around him; a soft beep from near the door they came in, and he could see the ambient light around him dim. Shiro’s shoulders dropped a bit in relief. He hadn’t realized how much the light was bothering him until it was gone.

“Well now, let’s see if we can’t figure out the problem.” 

Coran moved around Shiro with a scanner, and Shiro tried not to tense up again, but everything just felt so overwhelming, it was difficult not to. The scan finished with another soft beep, and Shiro cracked his eyes open again at the contemplative ‘hmm’ from Coran.

“It appears you’ve got some unusual brain activity going on, though nothing that appears especially dangerous. Can’t imagine it feels especially pleasant, though. Does this happen to humans much?”

Pidge bumped Coran out of the way, stopping in front of Shiro, taking him by the chin and lifting his head carefully to try to see his eyes. Even looking at the dimmed lights made his eyes hurt again, and Shiro let them slide shut.

“Shiro...are you experiencing any visual stuff, like weird lines, or halos or anything like that?”

“Uh…” Shiro opened his eyes again and yeah, the wiggly lines were still there on the edges of his vision. “Yeah, there are some squiggly things. Stuff also looks really bright, like all the colors are turned up.”

“Ha!” Pidge had the decency to look contrite when her outburst caused Shiro to flinch in discomfort again. “I think you’re experiencing a silent migraine. All the auras without the headache part. Matt used to get those sometimes when he was really worn out. Light and sound sensitivity, vertigo, upset stomach, the works.”

Allura peered over Pidge’s shoulder. “Will he be alright?”

Pidge nodded, rummaging through a supply drawer and grabbing an instant heat pack before helping Shiro up out of his chair. “Yeah, he should be fine. Just needs to lay low for a few hours and rest somewhere quiet and dark. That usually worked for Matt.”

A few minutes later saw Shiro safely nestled down on his bed, and he was so glad to be horizontal he couldn’t help the sigh of relief. Pidge had activated the heating pad and put it on the base of his neck, and it had immediately started to relieve tension in his shoulders he hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying. Pidge patted him gently on the shoulder.

“There you go. Give it a few hours, take a nap if you can, and you should be feeling better in no time.”

Shiro pressed his face into his pillow, enjoying the feel of the cool cover against his face. “Thanks, Pidge.”

Shiro was already asleep when she said, “You’re welcome, Shiro.”, and left.

**Author's Note:**

> Um...I seem to have Voltron-ed. Oops?
> 
> I was having a rough day the other day, and what is fandom better for than making your favorite characters suffer along with you? I'm still getting a hang of writing for larger casts, so unfortunately Keith and Hunk aren't quite in this. It's something to work on, I guess.


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